This invention relates to a stopping device which holds a spare wheel to a support member in a spare wheel holding apparatus, in which the center of the support member is connected to the lower end of a flexible suspending member which is made to move up and down by a winch.
The stopping device known in the prior art comprises two stationary stoppers in the forms of "I" or inverted "L" which are mounted on both ends of a support member adapted to make contact or to hold the edge of a hub-hole or a fixing hole in the disk wheel of a spare wheel. In such device, the spare wheel comes off the support member by the vibrations of the automobile, if the spare wheel which is raised by a winch underneath the chasis of the automobile is not pressed against a tyre holding member tightly. In order to hold the spare wheel securely to the support member, a device which comprises two stationary stoppers which are mounted on both ends of a support member, and two movable stoppers which are pivotably mounted and held in upright position by a spring on both ends of the support member, has been invented. But in the stopping device, all of the stationary stoppers and the movable stoppers have to be made to make contact and to hold the edge of the hub-hole. This makes the operations of mounting and dismounting the spare wheel complicated and the structure of the device also becomes complicated. And another device in which the stoppers are made out of spring steel has been invented but a spare wheel can not be held securely to the support member because the stoppers may be deformed easily.